Hello everyone. I'm new to the fish thing, but I got this fish from a friend and i'm not sure what kind of fish it is. The reason why they gave me the fish is because if was killing all the other fish. Any direction would be great. thanks

Looks like a Jack Dempsey to me. Do note though that in general, cichlids have varying personalities and I found out that most Central American cichlids are very aggressive. These fish are not for community tanks.

Falina

06-03-2007 09:03 PM

Lupin is right.

Other than the dwarf species, whcih this fish is not, they also need pretty big tanks on most ocassions. What size of tank is he in just now?

frogman6

06-03-2007 09:45 PM

yeh jack dempseys ur gonna need to sell it or get a big tank like at least a 55 or a 75

toji53

06-04-2007 12:04 AM

That's a male and it'll get 8-10". If you want to keep it you'll need a 55 gallon tank.

stylez

06-15-2007 03:12 PM

thanks a lot for all the info everyone. Well that tank is now gone. I have bought a 25 gal tank but by the looks of all the replies that isn't good enough by far. I look up jack dempsey and i figure its a male also. So by the sounds of it all I kinda screwed for getting any other fish in there with him. and also i kind of wasted my money on the 25 gal tank and should of just got a bigger one. From what i have read and from what people have told me is that you can only put other jack dempsey in the tank if is a bigger female. I'm pretty new to the whole aquarium thing and fish. I got this fish from a friend (neighbour) because it killed all his fish. I guess my so called friend forgot to mention some of the important points about this fish. I really just wanted to keep it for my 13month daughter which loves to watch the fish. Should this fish be feed feeder guppies or should it be feed the pellets. I'm feeding the pellets right now but i'm not to sure. I know he is very aggressive because I bought a small gold fish just to test his aggressiveness and within 5 minute of the goldfish being in there his head was gone. any insight would be great.

thanks
stylez

tophat665

06-16-2007 09:11 AM

Don't feed feeders unless you breed them yourself or quarantine them for a couple weeks first. They are notorious for disesase. Stick with pellets.

(Or set up a 10 gallon with a male and 3 female guppies, and a bunch of java moss on the bottom. and let nature take its course.)

mHeinitz57

06-16-2007 11:23 AM

yes I agree...stick with pellets! It drives me nuts when my customers only feed their cichlids live fish. There is so much more the fish will gain from pellts. Frozen foods are also a good option. I've successfully kept jack dempsey's with other south american cichlids. I had a tank with an oscar, jack dempsey, a midas, eel and a pleco in it. Everyone got along great but a lot of it depends on the individual personality of the dempsey. He usually has the potential of being the most aggressive one. They can also be kept with green terrors on occassion too. I used to rearrange the whole tank everytime I got new fish just to eliminate territories and give the new fish a fighting chance.